Hard Knocks Hostel drama hits the web

At a short film screening in Galway last month, actor Chris O’Dowd said Galway could well become the short film capital of Europe. And two budding Galway-based film makers are hoping to prove him right with a new comedy web series due to go online at the end of the month.

Karen Murphy has written, starred and directed the six-part series called Hard Knocks Hostel. Her partner Aaron Woods is the producer.

Karen used the experience of working for over three years in Barnacles Hostel on Quay Street to create the plot.

Set in a badly-run backpacker hostel in rural Ireland, the series follows the lives of two receptionists who are bored to tears working in the facility. To cope with the monotony, they get creative in their dealings with guests, which is fine by the boss, who has a rather unusual philosophy when it comes to the service industry – the customer is not always right.

“The wealth of characters you meet in a hostel – I felt after a year that I was meeting the same person over and over again – but not in a bad way,” smiles Karen.

“The guy with the guitar who bought an extra plane seat for his guitar so he can impress the girls in the canteen; the old man in a beanie who thinks he’s still 20; the stags who run around naked in the halls. Then there’s the types not used to hostels who think they’re in a hotel.”

The entire series was made for just €1,200 after Aaron launched an appeal on the public fundraising website, fundit.ie.

They recruited a team of 20 actor and crew members over Facebook and other industry websites and managed to convince the owner of Kilronan Hostel on Inishmore to let them take over the building for four days for free during their off-peak season.

The couple put in 14-hour days to wrap up the shoot in time, barely making the last boat off the island on day five.

Little Cinema, which provides a platform for filmmakers with small budgets by holding live screenings every month in the Róisín Dubh, provided massive support for the project by renting out high quality equipment for the shoot at a bargain basement price.

Little Cinema bought the equipment after Chris O’Dowd, star of the Hollywood blockbuster Bridesmaids and creator of the hit series Moone Boy, handed them €5,000 – two years running.

He was so impressed by the group’s support for fledgling artists that he attended their recent special screening in Nun’s Island Theatre, just days before he was conferred with the freedom of his native Roscommon.

The couple met while at the University of Limerick; Aaron from outside Ennis spent four years studying music and video production while Kildare native Karen studied law after her first choice, acting in Cambridge University, proved too costly.

They then both completed the masters in production and direction at the Huston Film School at NUIG.

While both of them have short films behind them, this is their first major production.

“At some point we’re going to enter the real film industry and you won’t have the choice who you work with or the material. It was kind of a fantasy to get together with a few of my friends and other like-minded people and just get stuck in creatively,” Karen recalls.

Each of the six episodes will last about seven minutes. The series will be available for free online and hope to use it to open some doors when they emigrate to Vancouver in Canada next January.

“Low-budget filmmaking is taking Galway by storm. With filmmaking, the only real way to get started is to go it alone. That’s why I rely on great sites like Fundit.ie to help me reach my goal and find the funds for short films I wish to make,” Aaron explained.

“People don’t look up whether you have a masters. It’s your show reel that counts. There’s also quite a lot of nepotism in the industry, so it’s a lot of who you know here.”

At nearly 27, Karen is ready to leave her hostel-working days behind for a career in film. Aaron, who works in the IMC cinema to fund his film ambitions, is hoping his lack of a car won’t hinder him anymore once in Vancouver. He says most of the work in Galway is not accessible unless you have private transport.

They both hope to take advantage of a thriving industry in Canada, where many American companies travel to for shoots due to tax breaks

Hard Knocks Hostel is currently being edited and the episodes will be launched at a special screening in the Quays Bar on November 28. It will then be available on Facebook